Day 7 – Glacier to Missoula to Greenough.

(You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them...)


It was a crisp 47.3 degrees when I got up on day 7.




Don and I dressed, and he wandered off to brush his teeth. While he was gone, a ranger came looking for him.



Just kidding, he was looking for a mama bear and cubs that had been spotted in camp early that morning. He said his shotgun was loaded with rubber slugs, ostensibly to “discourage” the bears’ presence in camp.

We broke camp and loaded the bikes, then walked the half-mile to a nearby diner. After a tasty breakfast, we got on Going to the Sun Highway, only to discover that Don’s bike was only running on one cylinder. We pulled over at an extremely windy overlook—so windy that I feared it would blow our bikes right over. As Don troubleshot the problem, some folks walked by and told us of a bear eating in the bushes down by the lake.



I left Don to fend for himself and wandered over to take pictures.





When I got back, Don had discovered one spark plug wire was cracked in two places.
We taped it and got going again. The repair didn’t seem to help much, so we made a beeline for Big Sky BMW in Missoula.

Those Montanans have funny ideas for street names…


Although we arrived just about closing, they took a look at it, and asked us to return the next day after they had a chance to raid the spare parts bin.

So, off we headed to Jerry & Deb’s awesome place. After navigating miles of dirt roads, and two gates that didn’t like motorcycles, we arrived. It’s a beautiful log cabin in a secluded valley, with a river running through the back yard.



Shortly after we arrived, we partook of the old biker tradition of a refreshing beverage after a long day’s ride.


Jerry asked about the temperatures while we’d been riding, and laughed at our recounting of how chilly the 43 degrees in Glacier felt. He said there was a prediction of “24 degree lows day after tomorrow.” We responded, “Well then we’d better head South before then!”

Here is the awesome cabin we stayed in.



Great folks!